New England had submitted to the violence of James the Second not longer than Old England.  Not only was it reserved to Massachusetts, that on her soil should be acted the first scene of that great revolutionary drama, which was to take place near a century afterwards, but the English Revolution itself, as far as the Colonies were concerned, commenced in Boston.  The seizure and imprisonment of Andros, in April, 1689, were acts of direct and forcible resistance to the authority of James the Second.  The pulse of liberty beat as high in the extremities as at the heart.  The vigorous feeling of the Colony burst out before it was known how the parent country would finally conduct herself.  The king’s representative, Sir Edmund Andros, was a prisoner in the castle at Boston, before it was or could be known that the king himself had ceased to exercise his full dominion on the English throne.

Before it was known here whether the invasion of the Prince of Orange would or could prove successful, as soon as it was known that it had been undertaken, the people of Massachusetts, at the imminent hazard of their lives and fortunes, had accomplished the Revolution as far as respected themselves.  It is probable that, reasoning on general principles and the known attachment of the English people to their constitution and liberties, and their deep and fixed dislike of the king’s religion and politics, the people of New England expected a catastrophe fatal to the power of the reigning prince.  Yet it was neither certain enough, nor near enough, to come to their aid against the authority of the crown, in that crisis which had arrived, and in which they trusted to put themselves, relying on God and their own courage.  There were spirits in Massachusetts congenial with the spirits of the distinguished friends of the Revolution in England.  There were those who were fit to associate with the boldest asserters of civil liberty; and Mather himself, then in England, was not unworthy to be ranked with those sons of the Church, whose firmness and spirit in resisting kingly encroachments in matters of religion, entitled them to the gratitude of their own and succeeding ages.

The second century opened upon New England under circumstances which evinced that much had already been accomplished, and that still better prospects and brighter hopes were before her.  She had laid, deep and strong, the foundations of her society.  Her religious principles were firm, and her moral habits exemplary.  Her public schools had begun to diffuse widely the elements of knowledge; and the College, under the excellent and acceptable administration of Leverett, had been raised to a high degree of credit and usefulness.